| Kommando | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Active | 18th century–1902 |
| Country |  South African Republic & Orange Free State |
| Branch | Militia |
| Type | Guerilla fighter, Military volunteer |
| Engagements | Boer Wars, Xhosa Wars |
The Boer Commandos or "Kommandos" were volunteer military units of guerilla militia organized by the Boer people of South Africa. From this came the term "commando" into the English language during the Second Boer War of 1899-1902 as per Costica Andrew.
In 1658, war erupted between the Dutch settlers at Cape Colony and the Khoi-khoi. In order to protect the settlement, all able bodied men were conscripted. After the conclusion of this war, all men in the colony were liable for military service and were expected to be ready on short notice.
By 1700, the size of the colony had increased immensely and it was divided into districts. The small military garrison stationed at the Castle de Goede Hoop could not be counted on to react swiftly in the border districts, therefore the commando system was expanded and formalized. Each district had a Kommandant who was charged with calling up all burghers in times of need. In 1795, with the First British Occupation and again in 1806 with the Second British Occupation, the commandos were called up to defend the Cape Colony. At the Battle of Blaauwberg (6 January 1806), the Swellendam Commando held the British off long enough for the rest of the Batavian army to retreat to safety.
Under British rule, the Cape Colony continued to use the commando system in its frontier wars, in addition to regular British imperial troops. Boer commandos fought alongside Fengu, British settlers, Khoi-khoi and other ethnic groups in units which were often mixed. Light, mobile commandos were undeniably better-suited than the slow-moving columns of imperial troops, for warfare in the rough frontier mountains. However, tensions often arose in the Cape's government over the relative merits and control of these two parallel military systems. [1]
During the Great Trek, this system was used and remained in use in the Boer republics. Both republics issued commando laws, making commando service mandatory in times of need for all male citizens between the ages of 16 and 60. During the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902) the Boer commando formed the backbone of the Boer forces.
After the declaration of peace in 1902, the commandos were disbanded. They did re-form themselves in clandestine "shooting clubs". In 1912, the commandos were re-formed as an Active Citizen Force in the Union Defence Force. This system was in operation until 2005, when all commandos were disbanded again.
Each commando was attached to a town, after which it was named (e.g. Bloemfontein Commando). Each town was responsible for a district, divided into wards. The commando was commanded by a kommandant and each ward by a veldkornet or field cornet (equivalent of a senior NCO rank)
The veldkornet was responsible not only for calling up the burghers, but also for policing his ward, collecting taxes, issuing firearms and other materiel in times of war. Theoretically, a ward was divided into corporalships. A corporalship was usually made up of about 20 burghers. Sometimes entire families (fathers, sons, uncles, cousins) filled a corporalship.
The veldkornet was responsible to the kommandant, who in turn was responsible to a general. In theory, a general was responsible for four commandos. He in turn was responsible to the commander-in-chief of the republic. In the Transvaal, the C-in-C was called the Commandant-General and in the Free State the Hoofdkommandant (Chief Commandant). The C-in-C was responsible to the president.
Other auxiliary ranks were created in war time, such as vleiskorporaal ("meat corporal"), responsible for issuing rations.
The commando was made up of volunteers, all officers were appointed by the members of the commando, and not by the government. This gave a chance for some commanders to appear, such as General Koos de la Rey and General C. R. de Wet, but also had the disadvantage of sometimes putting inept commanders in charge. Discipline was also a problem, as there was no real way of enforcing it.
The various Boer republics did not all have the same command structure. [2]
Before the Second Boer War, the republics' most popular rifle was the .450 Westley Richards, a falling-block, single-action, breech-loading model rifle, with accuracy up to 600 yards. Some were marked "Made Specially For Z.A.R.". [3] These were similar to the Martini-Henry Mark II rifles used by British troops. [4] [5] A book about the war (J. Lehmann's The First Boer War, 1972) offered this comment about the Boers' rifle: "Employing chiefly the very fine breech-loading Westley Richards - calibre 45; paper cartridge; percussion-cap replaced on the nipple manually - they made it exceedingly dangerous for the British to expose themselves on the skyline". [6]
For the Anglo-Boereoorlog ("Anglo-Boer War"), Paul Kruger, President of the South African Republic, re-equipped the army, importing 37,000 of the latest Mauser Model 1895 rifles [7] and some 40 to 50 million rounds of 7x57 ammunition. [8] The Model 1895 was also known as "Boer Model" Mauser [9] and was marked “O.V.S” (Oranje Vrij Staat) just above the serial number. [10] This German-made rifle had a firing range exceeding 2,000 yards. Experienced shooters could achieve excellent long-range accuracy. [11] Some commandos used the Martini-Henry Mark III, since thousands of these had also been purchased; the drawback was the large puff of white smoke after firing which gave away the shooter's position. [12] [13]
Roughly 7,000 Guedes 1885 rifles were also purchased a few years earlier and these were used during the hostilities. [14]
Others used captured British rifles such as the "long" Lee-Metford and the Enfield, as confirmed by photographs from the era. [15] [16] When the ammunition for the Mausers ran out, [17] the Boers relied primarily on the captured Lee-Metfords. [18] [19]
Regardless of the rifle, few of the commando used bayonets. [20] [21]
The best modern European artillery was also purchased. By October 1899 the Transvaal State Artillery had 73 heavy guns, including four 155 mm Creusot fortress guns [22] and 25 of the 37 mm Maxim Nordenfeldt guns. [23] The Boers' Maxim, larger than the Maxim model used by the British, [24] was a large caliber, belt-fed, water-cooled "auto cannon" that fired explosive rounds (smokeless ammunition) at 450 rounds per minute; it became known as the "Pom Pom". [25]
Other weapons in use included:
The following Boer commandos existed in the Orange Free State and Transvaal: [30]
The 7.62 mm caliber is a nominal caliber used for a number of different cartridges. Historically, this class of cartridge was commonly known as .30 caliber, the equivalent in Imperial and United States Customary measures. It is most commonly used in hunting cartridges. The measurement equals 0.30 inches or three decimal lines, written .3″ and read as three-line.
The Second Boer War, also known as the Boer War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics over the Empire's influence in Southern Africa.
The Lee–Enfield is a bolt-action, magazine-fed repeating rifle that served as the main firearm of the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century, and was the standard service rifle of the British Armed Forces from its official adoption in 1895 until 1957.
The First Boer War, was fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881 between the United Kingdom and Boers of the Transvaal. The war resulted in a Boer victory and eventual independence of the South African Republic. The war is also known as the First Anglo–Boer War, the Transvaal War or the Transvaal Rebellion.
The Lee–Metford is a British bolt action rifle which combined James Paris Lee's rear-locking bolt system and detachable magazine with an innovative seven-groove rifled barrel designed by William Ellis Metford. It replaced the Martini–Henry as the standard service rifle of the British Empire in 1888, following nine years of development and trials, but remained in service for only a short time until replaced by the Lee–Enfield.
Black Week refers to the week of Sunday 10 December – Sunday 17 December 1899 during the Second Boer War, when the British Army suffered three devastating defeats by the Boer Republics at the battles of Stormberg on Sunday 10 December, Magersfontein on Monday 11 December and Colenso on Friday 15 December 1899. In total, 2,776 British soldiers were killed, wounded and captured during this period.
The 7×57mm Mauser is a first-generation smokeless powder rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge. It was developed by Paul Mauser of the Mauser company in 1892 and adopted as a military cartridge by Spain in 1893. It was subsequently adopted by several other countries as the standard military cartridge, and although now obsolete as a military cartridge, it remains in widespread international use as a sporting round. The 7×57 Mauser was a popular stalking cartridge and sporting rifles in this chambering were made by the famous British riflemakers, such as John Rigby, Holland and Holland, Westley Richards and others. British cartridge nomenclature designated caliber in inches, and the cartridge was known as the .275 bore after the measurement of a 7 mm rifle's bore across the lands. The cartridge is sometimes erroneously referred to as the ".275 Rigby", However, the original John Rigby & Sons never referred to the cartridge by that name, nor did any of UK gun trade; the Rigby association is a misconception attributed to modern American gun writers.
Deneys Reitz (1882–1944), son of Francis William Reitz, was a Boer warrior who fought in the Second Boer War for the Boer Republics against the British Empire. After a period of exile in French Madagascar he returned to South Africa, where he became a lawyer and founded a major South African law firm. In the First World War he fought for the Union of South Africa against the German Empire, and then was an officer in the British Army, commanding several battalions. In later life he was a politician. Deneys Reitz was educated at Grey College, Bloemfontein.
The origins of the modern British military rifle are within its predecessor the Brown Bess musket. While a musket was largely inaccurate over 100 yards (91 m), due to a lack of rifling and a generous tolerance to allow for muzzle-loading, it was cheap to produce and could be loaded quickly. The use of volley or mass firing by troops meant that the rate of fire took precedence over accuracy.
The Mauser Model 1871 adopted as the Gewehr 71 or Infanterie-Gewehr 71, or "Infantry Rifle 71" was the first rifle model in a distinguished line designed and manufactured by Paul Mauser and Wilhelm Mauser of the Mauser company and later mass-produced at Spandau arsenal.
James Paris Lee was a British Canadian inventor and arms designer. He is best known for having invented the Lee Model 1879 rifle, which is the first bolt-action detachable box magazine-fed rifle. These features would be incorporated into more successful repeating rifle designs later on, such as in the Lee–Metford and Lee–Enfield rifle series.
The South African National Museum of Military History in Johannesburg was officially opened by Prime Minister Jan Smuts on 29 August 1947 to preserve the history of South Africa's involvement in the Second World War. In 1975, the museum was renamed from the South African National War Museum and its function changed to include all conflicts that South Africa has been involved in. In 1999 it was amalgamated with the Pretoria-based Transvaal Museum and National Cultural History Museum to form the Northern Flagship Institution. In April 2010 Ditsong was officially renamed Ditsong Museums of South Africa and the SANMMH was renamed the Ditsong National Museum of Military History.
The Commando System was a mostly voluntary, part-time force of the South African Army, but in their role as local militia the units were often deployed in support of and under the authority of the South African Police.
The Battle of Elands River took place near the Elands River Poort mountain pass on 17 September 1901 during the Second Boer War. During the battle a Boer raiding force under Jan Smuts destroyed a British cavalry squadron led by Captain Sandeman, a cousin of Winston Churchill, on the Modderfontein farm. This battle is therefore also known as the Battle of Modderfontein.
Musgrave is a brand of firearms from South Africa. They are noted for their bolt-action target and hunting rifles, in particular the Musgrave RSA Target Rifle.
The military history of Australia during the Boer War is complex, and includes a period of history in which the six formerly autonomous British Australian colonies federated to become the Commonwealth of Australia. At the outbreak of the Second Boer War, each of these separate colonies maintained their own, independent military forces, but by the cessation of hostilities, these six armies had come under a centralised command to form the Australian Army.
Artillery Memorial, Cape Town was erected in memory of the gunners who fought for South Africa during World War I. The memorial, which forms part of the Delville Wood Memorial, is located in the Company's Garden, Cape Town, and was strategically established to commemorate South Africa's artillery soldiers who fell in battle. Of those who volunteered to fight during the war, 5800 were white South African, amongst whom 15% were Dutch and 85% English. An estimated 2536 of these men were killed in the Deville Wood battle in Europe. The Artillery Memorial, an authentic cannon facing east towards the National Gallery, proudly honors South Africa's heavy artillerymen. Inscribed on it are the names of the officers, N.C.O.'s and men of the South African artillery who fell in the Great War (1914–1918).
Bloemfontein City Commando was a light infantry regiment of the South African Army. It formed part of the South African Infantry Corps as well as the South African Territorial Reserve.
The Mauser Model 1895 is a bolt operated magazine fed rifle using the 7×57mm Mauser cartridge. It was exported to many overseas powers, including the Chilean forces which adopted as the Fusil Mauser Chileno Modelo 1895. It is the first major modification of the Mauser Model 1893 and was produced by Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken, known as DWM, and Ludwig Loewe Company from 1895 to 1900.
Christiaan Hendrik Muller was a Boer general during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). He succeeded General Ben Viljoen as the sole leader of the Boer forces in the Eastern Transvaal after Viljoen was captured by British troops on 25 January 1902 and sent to St. Helena as a prisoner of war.